It does not surprise us to learn that the stationers did not thrive. Under the hard pressure of taxation and censorship, the imposition of arbitrary prices and compulsory loans, they found it very difficult to earn a living. They were obliged to add another business to that of book-publishing. A few became notaries; some sold furs, while their wives in the same shop sold "fripperies and like haberdashery"; others became the dressers of parchments and binders of books. Against these innovations the regents of the university made unavailing protest, severely censuring the base booksellers who "did not uphold the dignity of their profession, but who mixed it up with vile trades." But the necessities of the half-starved booksellers compelled the university to overlook the offense.
The best and largest books of the stationers were always of a theological nature. In a list given by Chevillier of the books sold in the fourteenth century by the booksellers to the university, are found in the foremost place, books on the Canon Law, the Homilies of St. Gregory, the Book of Sacraments, the Confessions of St. Augustine, the Homilies of St. Augustine, the Compendium of Thomas Aquinas,[1] and St. Thomas on Metaphysics, on Physics, on Heaven and Earth, on the Soul. Copies of the Gospels or the Scriptures, or even of the works of classical authors, were not in high request. The most popular books were elementary works on grammar and philosophy, for the use of students, and devotional works like creeds, catechisms, and prayers, which were largely bought by the more pious part of the people that were able to read.
The copyists made books for the more ignorant priests, books containing a synopsis of Christian faith and doctrine, or descriptions of important events recorded in the Scriptures. As an additional refreshment of the memory, and to make them more enticing to the buyer, these books were profusely illustrated with pen-and-ink drawings. The Bible of the Poor, and the Mirror of Man's Redemption, afterward popular as
- ↑ Erasmus, caustically, but truthfully, said of this huge book, "No man can carry it about with him, nor even get it in his head."
